For PvE: Acid Bomb is a blast finisher that does loads of damage, and you can cancel the leap portion (with ` ). After that would be the high AoE condi remove from others from Fumigate, and the AoE condi remove/heal from super elixir and the stun break on toolbelt. The 2nd skill can be decent dps in the right scenario but generally isn’t worth using (like the autoattack).
For PvP: It’s a stunbreak, brings excellent downed cleave if you have any power (cele), brings heal/condi remove on super elixir, as well as a blast for your healing turret f1 when needed, a halfway decent escape, and a more reliable autoattack than pistol 1 for condi builds. Honestly it isn’t worth using if you don’t need the condi remove (sometimes even then) when you could take slick shoes instead, get a superior stunbreak, superior escape, and great CC as well.
Overcharged shot: from a starting distance of 150 to an ending distance of 594, for a distance of 444. Essentially 450.
Stomp: starting 100, ending 537, total of 437. Also essentially 450.
Both would probably end up as 450 on perfectly even terrain.
I, for one, welcome our new panic strike sword/dagger thief overlords.
- Condition and boon duration? Do they stay on trait lines or are they moving to amulets or runes?
- Many builds rely on the additional 300 vitality or 300 toughness from a trait line to survive, given their chosen amulet provides none (or little). This is needed because they have low base health or armor to start with. How will the amulet system change to compensate for no longer being able to do this? Will we finally move to an amulet/ring/earring system and see a large increase in build diversity, or do you plan to tack a little bit of vitality on to rabid amulet, toughness onto rampagers and clerics, etc.?
- Builds that relied on minor traits in more than 3 lines (most guardian builds for example) will be taking a large hit with this. Are there any plans to move/change any of these incredibly important minor traits, or make them baseline for the class, or are builds like this just getting screwed over?
- Does this system mean that XIII traits are no longer locked and must be purchased for obscene amounts of gold/skill points for every PvP character you make? Have you guys finally seen the light and realized that locking anything build related behind gold sinks is a bad idea?
The only time I actually put my rifle turret down to act as a turret (not to just explode/CC an attacking melee player, and not to use as a blast finisher for healing) is when I down an opponent 1v1 and am about to go down myself. This happens maybe once every 4-5 matches. The rest of the time, a blown up turret is worth far more than a live turret for an SD engi.
D/D ele, shoutbow, cele engi, medi hammer guard, d/p panic strike thief. Lots of sustain, lots of immobilize, lots of burst.
Just give him Sorge’s aboveground skillset while he’s underwater. Then we could have challenge-mode Mossman kills.
I’ve been reminded that the only times I actually use turrets as, well, turrets, in PvE are for soloing AC p1 burrows and solo Belka in arah p2, and both of these would be screwed if turrets were affected by condition damage, so please remember to make any large nerfs like this PvP only.
I still disagree with this nerf, however. Turret builds need changes, yes, but this is hitting them with the nerf hammer to the point of ruining them completely in the only game mode they’re actually used as turrets. Either conditions affecting them or crits affecting them would be more than enough of a nerf, both is simple overkill.
Turrets and turret traits need a large rework to make them more active and strategic. Simply destroying the build is not the correct solution. We need more build diversity, not less.
I recorded a few minutes of attacking some golems (multiple at once) at 105% crit chance with ranger short bow in HotM. Could anyone who knows anything about video editing point me towards some programs for editing in a stopwatch thingy for the air procs?
Pretty sure both of them have their correct field effects. I know I’ve gotten stealth from Jump Shotting through the smoke screen, and the condi cleanse effect from throw wrench through the WoR at least. Though it may be a bit harder if you’re tossing it on uneven terrain, the field usually ends up in some…weird… positions.
Edit: Tested in HotM, blast/leap/projectile all work correctly for both effects. No idea about whirl.
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I’d like to see Static Shock (AED’s toolbelt skill) turned into a targeted range damage effect. It doesn’t need to keep the CC effect, having damage and proc’ing static discharge are enough. AED has the potential to be great with glass builds, but I just can’t justify it right now with all that destruction-traited Healing Turret offers. Having damage and an SD proc might tip the scales though.
squishes forum bug
Either conditions or crits effecting turrets would have been enough. Both are too much, however, and will mean turrets other than thumper will die very quickly versus any compositions. If you mean to implement both, I’d suggest health increases on non-thumper turrets to compensate.
Personally I’d like to see 3 things:
- Turrets affected by conditions
- Turrets other than Healing Turret are placed where the Engineer was located when the channel began. Fixes turrets in midair, which was one of the main reasons turrets are hard to kill
- Protection Injection switches places with Stabilized Armor. The engi must decide whether they want to take protection against personal burst, or damage reduction on turrets, reducing their effective defenses overall
I kinda think we’ll get a whirl move that knocks back in an AoE, low range, 3-5 targets, with a whirl finisher.
I’d really love for us to get some sort of a short range teleport or disposition effect on it, but I doubt it would happen.
From a PvE perspective, it’ll be good as long as it has high power coefficients + vuln and a low cooldown blast. It wouldn’t surprise me to find all 3 on it, or at least 2/3, considering.
Engi relies almost completely on Toolkit. It’s just too good to not take. Other strong contenders are the speedy kits + invigorating speed combo and backpack regenerator, both of which are needed for any build that isn’t full zerk/burst SD. Accelerent-packed turrets comes pretty kitten close too.
Instant cast is too much for AED. A half second cast would be more than enough. Instant cast would mean you could use it during a CC chain, or pretty much any time when you were sure you were about to die, and nearly always get the high health heal, as opposed to having the risk of having to predict when it would be best used with more enemy counterplay in being able to stop damaging you.
The biggest problem in using Elixir U I think is that it has a 50% chance of completely depleting your endurance, which is beyond counterproductive. If that was removed or reduced it might see more use.
Disagree on water field on Super Elixir. I’d rather just see the water field on Regenerate increased in duration by a second. High water field uptime with all the blasts we have access to would be pretty OP.
While I do think 25% is too low for Low-Health Response System, 75% would be overkill. 33% to correspond with the current revision of Automated Response would be better imo.
Similarly, 10s recharge is too low for Protective Shield. High protection uptime from an adept trait is a bad idea. We can get kitten near perma already with the right traits atm anyway. I wouldn’t want to see the recharge lower than 15s.
I don’t want to see Elixir-Infused Bombs leave inventions. It’s the toughness/healing line, which is exactly what EIBombs is about. Instead taking one of the precious few decent traits out of the line, we should work on improving the other traits in the line. Stabilized Armor needs to be changed to reduce damage when effected by any CC, Power Shoes needs to be increased to 33% speed, Reinforced Shield needs to be moved to adept tier where all the rest of our cooldown decreasing skills are (swap with Energized Armor maybe?).
Also, as much as I’d like to see 100nades return, it’s really not a good idea balance-wise, even at GM tier. The global cooldown definitely needs to go though, or at least be decreased significantly. I’d like to see the cast time on Mine Field to be decreased to half a second to make 100nade style mine build a little more of a thing.
Personally I’d like to see Gadgeteer merged into Speedy Gadgets. Maybe put in a trait that grants evasion frames when using a gadget or something in its old spot.
The other suggestions are all great though.
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I’d rather just change lupi’s stats so that his power is 5-10x lower, but he has 100% crit chance and 5-10x total modifier from crit damage. Since reflects use his power but the reflector’s crit chance/damage, this would be a significant nerf to them without making them completely useless.
…now that I think about it though, it would make him trollishly easy for eles with that ‘no crits in earth attunement’ GM. So maybe just nerf power and give him a flat 5-10x damage modifier effect buff thingy on him 100%.
Projectiles actually have to travel a short distance inside a projectile block/reflect skill for the block/reflect effect. If they encounter your hitbox immediately after creation, you’re still going to get hit.
There needs to be some amount of point recovery by killing the heros.
In PvE, engi is the hardest class to play perfectly. We have far more complex rotations than other classes, and require a ton of util/weapon/trait swapping for maximum effect.
In PvP, engi is somewhat easy to play at lower levels, but hard to master, and can be used to high effect when played well. Learning what to combo with what when, what to interrupt, what to dodge, what to block, what to LoS, how to manage your cooldowns/CCs for maximum pressure, etc, takes a long time. You don’t get good fast. Expect over 2000 games before you even come close to mastery.
No idea about WvW, never really played it much.
It is viable up until the top (organized) tier, at which point you start getting camped by the enemy team’s zerkers all game. You want to start engagements at range, get your first fire/air procs off, then magnet or close into your target for your burst finish. You want to stay on the edge/outside of large teamfights most of the time like a power ranger or mesmer would, and you can use some of the same spots they do to decent effect. Feel free to give up a cap in a 1v1 if staying on point means dying— you can kill safely at range and take the point back afterwards.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been accused of being a turret engi when playing cele or rabid 2kit, or been called ‘cele trash’ after owning someone with a zerker static discharge build. People complain about stuff they perceive as ‘OP’ without ever having tried the class/build to learn what to dodge, what deals damage, etc, so of course they lose to it. Just ignore them, block if necessary, and move along.
Bunker engineer, while fun to play, isn’t a very effective bunker in pvp for a few reasons:
- No stability: Without regular stability access, you lack the ability to reliably safe-stomp and safe-res, and can be knocked off point and decapped by skilled players if you are not playing perfectly.
- Mediocre party support: you provide decent heals and a couple condi cleanses, and not much else. Other competing bunker builds provide regular protection, vigor, etc.
- Weakness to conditions: You have at most 3x self condi cleanse every 16-20s, unless you decide to forsake toolkit (would not recommend), meaning you’ll get melted by heavy condition pressure. Other traditional bunkers bring more condi cleanse.
Okay, well while you spend time insulting me on the forums, I’ll be playing and winning high-tier ranked games against top players. Have fun with your delusions.
The difference between being able to hit someone from on top of the crypt at mid on Foefire and from the ledge below it is huge. As an SD engineer, you rely far more than most other builds on positioning to survive, and unlike similar builds on other professions, you do not have a teleport skill to reposition yourself when focused. Being able to damage from a high ground position means the enemy team cannot switch the majority of their focus onto you, and they are forced to move far or use (often) important cooldowns to reach you. And while not as obvious, an SD engineer can wreak just as much havoc from the edge of a teamfight as a powermancer or power ranger, with the added bonus of dealing mostly piercing damage. Rifled Barrels also means you can engage sooner, and deal damage for longer; as well as escape easier, and even deal more damage to enemies who break LoS by higher Blunderbuss damage through walls.
All that in combination with a 600 range Overcharged Shot. It’s quite easily the second most important trait for SD engi.
Also, Accelerant-Packed turrets is amazing for being an offensive trait with highly defensive applications. Most builds in the current meta have to be in close range to deal their highest damage, and this trait gives you not 1 but 2 ways to punish anyone who tries to do so with CC — and good damage-- which can easily be combo’d into overcharged shot, or net shot, or supply crate.
Some things I’d like to see:
- Turrets besides Healing Turret are placed where you begin the cast, not where you end it (no more floating turrets— if you want your turrets to be in more protected positions, you must trait for thrown turrets)
- Protection Injection and Stabilized Armor switch places. Turret engineers have to choose between their turrets being squishier or they themselves being more susceptible to focus fire.
- Fix that glitch that removes the effects of Rifle Barreled Turrets on overcharging some turrets
Turrets should remain as immobile area denial, but should not be unreachable for most skills. Other than that I don’t really see any problems with them, though I can understand how many are angry about the survivability they have since the introduction of Sentinel’s Amulet. I still can’t see of any way to make them actually compete with kits in usefulness, short of adding stunbreaks to some overcharge effects, but I imagine people would complain even more about that.
You’re crippling yourself by not taking Rifled Barrels. SD engi relies a lot on positioning, so being able to stand further out on the edge of a fight and get your fire/air procs off onto a target without risking yourself is very useful. Rifle autoattack with rifled barrels traited is one of the precious few autos in the game that is actually accurate to 1200 range— you can’t just sidestep it like most projectile autos— and it does good damage at the same time. Rifled Barrels also gives you higher average dps on Blunderbuss due to less strenuous range requirements for its max damage, and it turns your Jump Shot into a proper movement skill should you use it that way.
It also gives you a 600 range Overcharged Shot. Everyone expects an engi to move closer to them before overcharging, but with this trait, you don’t have to. It’s one of the few combinations on engineer I’d consider truly overpowered.
Also, I question the use of Elixir Gun. While it does have excellent downed cleave through acid bomb and a little bit extra sustain, I think there are several other skills you can take that outclass it for an SD build. My personal favorite is Elixir S, as it brings both stealth for an easy burst opener (or saving downed allies from stomps), as well as invulnerability to prevent a burst, wait out an immobilize, or safe-stomp an enemy. Some other useful options are Slick Shoes, which is very useful for dealing with Thieves and other Engineers, as well as good for escaping fights (and its low cooldown stunbreaker). But while a stunbreak is certainly useful, if you’re getting hit with multiple CCs you’re going to die soon anyway with how squishy you are, and invuln would likely be the better choice for escaping high pressure like that.
I’ve seen a lot of people take Utility Goggles as well for its instant cast, SD-procing toolbelt skill, as well as the stunbreak, and blind immunity, which, combined with the reveal on Analyze, makes it another excellent choice for fighting Thieves, though perhaps not as good as Slick Shoes.
I’ve heard that Runes of Vampirism 6th effect (mist form at 20% HP) allows the use of toolbelt skills, which sounds pretty strong when coupled with 3 SD-proccing toolbelt skills. Not sure if it’s a better choice than Pack, with all the fury and crit chance it provides, but it’s something to consider.
You’re also missing Accelerant-Packed Turrets, which is very useful in shutting down people who get into melee. You have 2 low cooldown turrets you can use for CC, and even get heals out of them at the same time through water field blasting. The knockback from exploding a turret makes for an excellent frame in which to overcharged shot your opponent, and you can use toolbelt skills from there for an easy finish. Taking 2 in explosives also gives you bomb on dodge, which deals far more damage than your autoattack, and is especially good for pressuring downed or ressing enemies.
Edit: I am blind, disregard that last paragraph.
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Please link me this build that can tank 3-4 players forever. I would like to run 2-3 of these in the next Go4 cups for the easy $400. Thanks in advance.
One of the life steals was bugged for the longest time, but was fixed recently (~1 month or so ago). Honestly I still can’t see why you’d take them over something like Pack, but to each their own I guess. The 6th bonus seems really counteproductive.
For PvP/WvW: Static Discharge
If meta builds were meta because of ease of use, turret engi and MM necro would be at the top of metabattle’s PvP section. They’re meta because they bring the most to the table when played properly. Whether or not they’re easy to play properly has nothing to do with it.
Hi.
ANet, why do you not want to take my money?
I’ve interrupted with engi downed state #2 at least 3 times through distortion when I know it shouldn’t have in the last month or so. Not sure if any of those times were in any of my recorded matches, but if I find one I’ll post it.
Adrenal Implant is useless when you have near perma vigor from infused precision + invigorating speed, as passive endurance regeneration caps at +100%. I get the feeling you’re going to be doing more damage from bomb on dodge than actual skills at that point though. I’ll give it another shot tonight with proper equipment on my zerker engi.
Spent about an hour attempting solo on condi engi, but it wasn’t happening. L/R strafing only seemed to work half the time, and lupi kept staying in his shadowstep form even after dodging the original return. What a pain.
Save us, Gaile! You’re our only hope!
I wouldn’t mind seeing Protection Injection trade places with Stabilized Armor. We’d probably see a lot of 6/0/2/4/2 over 6/0/0/4/4, so there’d be a bit more diversity to the cele meta build. It’d also mean turret engineers couldn’t take both prot injection and metal plated. Both trait lines could do with some rebalancing though, seeing how a couple of the adept traits are better than any of the grandmasters.
This is the reason Forest is my least favorite map in the ranked rotation. If you’re not in the highest MMR bracket, or are, but happen to be playing with lower MMR friends/guildies, Forest games turn from ‘the better team overall wins’ to ‘the team with the least terribads win’. Players ignore being asked not to go for beasts, or argue with you for telling them not to, and go for them anyway, even if they’ve been sniped previously.
It doesn’t help that this game has no real tutorial. People see 25 points pop up and think “wow, these must be good” without realizing that there are in fact 500 points required to win, and even killing both teams beasts off respawn will only net you a total of 150 points most games, which, even combined with a 1cap all game, means a loss.
I use zerk ascended with scholar runes and assassin’s trinkets on my engi. Zerk asc rifle for night dungeons, specific exo assassin rifles for day dungeons (minus arah). Haven’t really felt the need to swap out for more assassin’s, and I think at this point it’d be a very small gain for a very high price.
Trap thieves.
Reroll staff ele, pop armor of earth, meteor shower + lava font. Watch turrets go pop, profit. Bonus points if your meteor shower downs engis as well.
Went from being able to play at ~30fps with mostly high settings running on windows 8, to barely 30fps on absolute lowest (including subsample) after upgrading to windows 8.1 today. I can’t even record anymore, fps just drops too low for it.
Edit: Found the problem, upgrade reverted graphics processor settings, so GW2 was set to use integrated graphics.
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15+ minute queues don’t happen anymore. The matchmaking system doesn’t allow it. Even at off hours, you’re very unlikely to see anything over 9 minutes— because matchmaking throws you into a bad game at that point, rather than have you wait longer for a good one. While the best players may have to wait a couple more minutes on average for their games, they also win more of them, which easily makes up for it.
It might be nice to explain how teleports and portals work, and how/where they are used to speed up dungeons. Also, general NPC mechanics, specifically how they teleport to the nearest player when the player they were following leaves or waypoints. Stuff like strafing back and forth to make ranged attacks miss, and which melee attacks can be sidestepped easily, or negated by walking through enemy models, etc.
Is there any chance we’ll see the dishonor system re-enabled during this test season, or are there any major problems with the system that haven’t been fixed yet?
I’ve had both the in-match queue pop bug and the bug where you are unable to re-enter a match after disconnect/char swap. Hope these get fixed soon.